Neighbours try to save woman who set fire to herself

SAM EMANUEL

05 February 2010

An inquest has heard how neighbours of a mother who deliberately set herself on fire tried in vain to save her life.

Dorothy Howard had been suffering from mental health problems for several years before she poured petrol over herself behind her house in Brick Kiln Road, North Walsham, and then set herself on fire on her driveway using a box of matches.

After seeing the horrifying spectacle of Mrs Howard on fire, neighbour Marco Canessa, who lives next door to the house Mrs Howard shared with her 14-year-old son, called the emergency services and then ran out into the street with a throw from their sofa and wrapped it round the 55-year-old.

He had been woken by his wife Susan, who heard a “piercing scream” at 1.50am on Friday, March 20 last year, and the couple had looked out the window to see “a person in the middle of the road, with her arms out in the shape of a cross, completely engulfed in flames.”

Mrs Howard stumbled around in the road while still alight and then collapsed on the pavement. When the emergency services arrived a short time later, she was still conscious, but sadly she was pronounced dead the following day at a specialist burns unit in Essex.

Although he was unable to save her life, Mr Canessa's bravery was commended by coroner William Armstrong at Mrs Howard's inquest yesterday.

Mr Armstrong said: “We should commend him for his actions. He did everything he possibly could in very difficult circumstances.”

The inquest heard how the seamstress had been in contact with several health professionals after concerns about her health were raised by her son and her ex-husband David Howard because of her obsessive delusions about smelling, the fact she had stopped feeding herself properly and the fact she had gone missing for 36 hours previously.

She was then assessed as having mental health problems which did not pose an immediate risk to herself or anyone else, meaning she would not have to be detained against her will. She had not expressed any thoughts of suicide of self-harm.

After commending the efforts of the doctors involved, Mr Armstrong recorded a narrative verdict, which said: “Dorothy Howard did as a result of her own actions at a time when she was suffering from a mental disorder. There is insufficient evidence to enable a reliable judgement to be formed as to her state of mind and intentions at the time.

“I want to express my deepest sympathy to her family, in particular her son who will have been deeply traumatised by what has happened to his mother. This death was neither predictable nor preventable.”